Documentary Eyes Campus Sexual Assault
Dozens of men, women, and families gathered at Guild Hall on Aug. 19 for a screening of “The Hunting Ground,” a provocative documentary about sexual assault on college campuses and the blind eye university presidents turn toward the epidemic.
The film, directed by Kirby Dick, an Academy Award nominee, and produced by Amy Ziering, Regina Scully, and Maria Cuomo Cole, begins with a collection of YouTube videos of teenagers jumping, sobbing, screaming, and shaking with nerves as they find out they were accepted into their dream schools. The scene is set to the “Graduation March,” and is a tearjerker for the swelling joy it produces, but the rape stories and statistics that immediately follow are sobering. Throughout the film, viewers clucked in disbelief and heaved deep sighs. One person swore.
Woven into the main narrative about Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, two women sexually assaulted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who band together to take on the institution that would not investigate their cases or support their claims, is a deep look inside the corrupt industries of colleges where alumni associations, college athletics, and fraternity life drive donations and brand perception and where administrations disregard claims in order to keep rape case statistics low.
The filmmakers last collaborated for a documentary investigating rape in the military called “The Invisible War,” which won 13 awards, changed legislation, and from which “The Hunting Ground” stemmed. Ms. Ziering said many victims stepped forward after seeing “The Invisible War” and alleged they were experiencing the same issues on college campuses. Emails flooded in for three months, and eventually Ms. Ziering felt they needed to make these stories into a film.
Despite dozens of interviews with survivors, experts, and footage on college campuses, gaining access proved challenging in some respects. In a panel following the screening Wednesday, Ms. Ziering said it was easier to persuade top-level Pentagon officials to talk for “The Invisible War” than it was to get high-level administrators at colleges to speak on the record for this documentary.
“Tackling higher education, that culture has been infinitely harder,” said Ms. Scully at the panel discussion.
The release of “The Hunting Ground” comes at a time when victims are speaking out against sexual assault on campuses and receiving national attention. Emma Sulkowicz carried her mattress around Columbia University this past year because she wanted the man she alleged had raped her to be expelled or leave the school. Owen Labrie, 19, of St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire is currently on trial for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl following a school ritual.
Ms. Pino and Ms. Clark launched the Courage Project, and their work for it is documented in “The Hunting Ground.” They road-tripped across the country to speak with other survivors and educate them about Title IX, a federal law that states that students shall not be discriminated against on the basis of gender. Advocates against sexual violence argue that assault denies victims equal access to education. If schools are found not in compliance with Title IX, their federal funding can be pulled.
Staggering statistics in the film stated that in 2012, 45 percent of colleges reported no cases of sexual assault. Elite schools like Stanford University had almost 300 cases and only 1 expulsion, according to the documentary. Some teachers who spoke out against sexual violence were denied tenure or fired.
The documentary has traveled to 635 campuses and counting and will be broadcast on CNN in the fall. The screening last week was co-sponsored by the Retreat, which offers services in East Hampton for victims of domestic violence.
Ms. Ziering said since the release, some colleges are taking action, such as the new campus climate survey at Yale. However, she said, “A lot of them are lawyering up and PR-ing up.”
“I’m stunned at the lack of interest or curiosity, the shame and fear,” she said about administrators failing to show up at the screenings. In May and June this year, the crew held 100 screenings on campuses.
Ms. Ziering said the film has resonated with viewers. Fraternity brothers came forward at the University of Delaware and she recalled that one said to her, “ ‘We had no idea, we just thought girls lied.’ ”